SOTA'S UNAFFECTED IMPIETY. 



191 



him a fierce and formidable aspect. This tonsure, 

 confined to those about the palace, distinguishes its 

 officers and inmates, servile as well as free, from the 

 people. The Ryots leave patches of hair where they 

 please, but they may not shave the whole scalp under 

 pain of death, till a royal edict unexpectedly issued at 

 times commands every head to shed its honours. Suna 

 never appeared in public without a spear; his dress 

 was the national costume, a long piece of the fine 

 crimped mbugu or bark-cloth manufactured in these 

 regions, extending from the neck to the ground. He 

 made over to his women the rich clothes presented by 

 the Arabs, and allowed them to sew with unravelled 

 cotton thread, whereas the people under severe penalties 

 were compelled to use plantain fibre. No commoner 

 could wear domestics or similar luxuries ; and in the 

 presence, the accidental exposure of a limb led, accord- 

 ing to the merchants, to the normal penalty — death. 



Suna, like the northern despots generally, had a 

 variety of names, all expressing something bitter, 

 mighty, or terrible, as, for instance, Lbare, the Al- 

 mighty (?) ; Mbidde and Purgoma, a lion. He could 

 not understand how the Sultan of Zanzibar allowed 

 his subjects treasonably to assume the name of their 

 ruler ; and besides mortifying the Arabs by assuming 

 an infinite superiority over their prince, he shocked 

 them by his natural and unaffected impiety. He 

 boasted to them that he was the god of earth, as their 

 Allah was the Lord of Heaven. He murmured loudly 

 against the abuse of lightning; and he claimed from 

 his subjects divine honours, which were as readily 

 yielded to him as by the facile Romans to their emperors. 

 No Mganda would allow the omnipotence of his sultan 

 to be questioned, and a light word concerning him 



